creative technology

Adorable Build-It-Yourself CNC Bot Fits in Your Pocket

This amazing open source platform allows you to create your own drawing robot. The technologies used are all familiar to me – Arduino and Processing. The pieces have already been laser cut for you to assemble them yourself. At $70. It is quite a bargain. This is however strictly aimed at geek hobbyists as it requires programming in Processing. The good news is that the kind of drawings it is capable of producing is only limited by your programming skills. This gadget reminds me of the automaton in Hugo (2011 film) as shown below. In the story, the automaton is designed to draw pictures that the hero, Hugo, is trying to uncover by repairing it.

P.S. “CNC” stands for Computer Numerical Control, referring to any automaton that has precision moving parts controlled by a computer.